Visit Ukiah very confident in new logo

A new logo and tagline created for the Visit Ukiah Program stirred up controversy among locals, many of whom wondered why a Bay Area marketing firm was paid to come up with a campaign for the Ukiah Valley.

"We're getting hammered," said Visit Ukiah Administrator Shannon Riley Monday, adding that a lot of the "negativity" surrounding the suggested logo and slogan of "Ukiah: Far out. Nearby" stemmed from misunderstandings about where the money to pay Z Group Communications came from.

"The City of Ukiah's General Fund was not used in any way, shape or form," Riley said, explaining that Z Group was paid $21,000 of the funds the city collects from the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), also known as the hotel bed tax, which is a surcharge on overnight stays.

Until 2011, the program was administered by the Ukiah Chamber of Commerce, but is now administered by the city. However, the funds are still maintained separately and are not used for general fund purposes, she said.

Rather than draining the city's coffers, Riley said Visit Ukiah is contributing to them by increasing the amount of people who visit and stay in Ukiah.

"Visit Ukiah has been extremely successful -- in 2011, the TOT went up 12 percent," Riley said. "Already this year, it is up another 10 percent, and that is during a downturn in the economy in the county and nationally."

Riley said there is also a "misconception that somebody was paid $21,000 to create this logo. In reality, a professional firm with expertise in destination marketing was selected to do this much bigger project that includes the website, the brochure and marketing suggestions."

In response to the question of why a local firm had not been hired to create the logo, Riley said eight firms responded to Visit Ukiah's request for proposals for the project, which was budgeted at $25,000.

"Two of those firms were local, but unfortunately they did not have the kind of destination marketing experience" we were looking for, she said, explaining that the project was not just about creating a logo. "After interviewing the top two firms, Z Group came out the clear winner --and was $4,000 under budget. Additionally, we were particularly impressed with their community-minded approach."

In response to many who commented on the Ukiah Daily Journal's Facebook page and said they felt the logo did not represent Ukiah well and should have included trees and other things to show the beauty of the area, Riley said the logo needed to stay fairly close to the existing Visit Ukiah logo.

"We wanted to simplify the logo, make it easier to read and more generally marketable, but we couldn't go in a completely different direction," she said.

Many other commenters said they did not like how the slogan referenced hippie or stoner culture. "I can just hear Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider' -- Far out, man!'" one person wrote.

"All of our marketing research indicates that our target visitors are Baby Boomers, and the generation below them, that live in the Bay Area and Sacramento areas, and we needed help effectively reaching this sophisticated customer (who is tired of the hustle and bustle of the city and the extravagant costs of wine country," Riley said. "The tagline is edgy and interesting, and we believe it will be extremely effective with our target visitor when cleverly paired with beautiful images from the Ukiah area.

"Our ads will be fun and thought-provoking," Riley continued. "When it is used in our ads, it will be clear that far out' has only positive connotations. Ukiah offers a clear contrast to the urban experience, and yet we are less than three hours away -- perfect for a weekend getaway. Thus, Far out. Nearby.'"

Riley said the Visit Ukiah Task Force still needs to vote on the logo and slogan, but "We're very satisfied with (Z Group's) work and are confident that we made the right choice. This is the foundation for our future work, which will include lots of advertisements and promotions. Realistically, for future work related to this campaign, we look forward to working with the same local designers who've produced outstanding work for us already."